Philippe Gilbert foresees harvest season for Belgian cycling with "at least 7 stage successes" at the Tour

Belgium is undeniably one of the biggest cycling powerhouses, with riders able to score at a wide range of stages. With Grand Départ so close to French-Belgian borders, it almost feels like the race takes off on home roads with the amount of black-white-red themed crowds at the side of the road. And thus naturally, the expectations are through the roof.

With 29 men at the starting line this Saturday, including Remco Evenepoel, Wout Van Aert, sprinter stars Jasper Philipsen or Tim Merlier, and many more, it seems highly unlikely the homeland of Philippe Gilbert would walk away empty-handed. In fact, the retired Classics star predicts "at least 7 Belgian daily successes".

And he's already thought it through how exactly will those triumphs distribute: "2 for Remco Evenepoel, 2 stages for Tim Merlier, 1 for Jasper Philipsen, 1 victory for Wout van Aert and a successful escape for Jasper Stuyven in the last week," he wrote on X.

The first seems cut out for fast men Merlier and Philipsen with both viewed as serious adepts to wear yellow jersey after the first stage. And if they don't succeed, Olympic time trial champion Evenepoel could still take up the task himself with a stage 5 33-kilometer time trial definitely playing into his hands.